


pages bleeding love

by saunatonttu



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Blue Lions route spoilers too I suppose, Correspondence, Golden Deer Route spoilers, M/M, Post-Blue Lions Route, listen......... they're chaotic bisexuals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2020-09-28 03:02:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20418830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saunatonttu/pseuds/saunatonttu
Summary: Count Gloucester sends his regards.





	pages bleeding love

It was after his usual morning – or rather, early afternoon – flight with his wyvern that Nader arrived at the palace. Claude had holed himself back in his study, attempting to pen a response to the King of the unified Fódlan.

Or rather, Dimitri. It wasn’t on behalf of the Kingdom that he was writing to Claude, after all. Instead, it was in the name of mutual friendship – and, Claude assumed wryly as he read through the contents again, the need to vent about the kingly duties to someone that wasn’t around to force his hand to sign a document after document.

He was in the middle of going through the last paragraph again, conflicted as to what to do with the wedding invitation Dimitri had tossed upon him as casually as he threw javelins in battle. Claude wanted to attend – if just to find out who Dimitri had chosen to stand beside him in hardship, since the letter didn’t mention the name or gender of the to-be spouse – but…

Perhaps Dimitri was borrowing a page from Claude’s book and using the mystery of it to allure Claude into coming.

It was almost embarrassing how well it was working.

In any case, Nader walked in on Claude ruminating over the matter, after knocking sharply on the door but without waiting for reponse from the soon-to-be King of Almyra.

”Nader,” Claude said without even turning to look at his retainer, voice good-humored, ”can’t a guy afford some privacy around this place?”

”There’s no such thing among family, is there, kid?” Nader returned with obvious laughter in his voice, and Claude straightened his back from the hunched position he’d been for a while now.

Nader’s booming voice quieted down a little with his next words, but not by much, and the ever present mirth certainly didn’t disappear. ”Count Gloucester sends his regards.”

Claude turned around – what did _that_ old man want with him – but the grin on Nader’s face tipped him off, and Claude’s own face lit up with realization as he began to laugh. ”Lorenz… of course. He put you up to this, didn’t he?”

”He was quite insistent those to be the first words I tell you,” Nader said, one corner of his lips rising higher with his barely contained laugh. ”Sounded like a recent event. His title, that is.”

Lorenz hadn’t mentioned anything of the like in their past correspondense, but… Claude eyed Nader curiously. ”Did the old count go and die, then? I want to say good riddance, but that’d be a little heartless even from me.”

”No, seems to have gone and retired of his own free will,” Nader said with a shrug. ”Hasn’t been much help to your friend, from the looks of it. The new count looked a little ragged when I went to drop off your gift.”

Claude’s thoughts went back to the last time he’d seen Lorenz. It had been right after the war, after he had finished with what little he had left with House Riegan. Some whimsical thought had driven him to visit the Gloucesters, and while the count himself had been as cold to him as ever, Lorenz had seemed… downcast. Tired. Claude still wasn’t sure how much of it was due to the war and how much from being near his father again.

”No, I’m quite all right,” Lorenz had insisted. ”There is a future to be forged – I’ll not allow weakness to make home when there is much left to be done.”

More hesitantly, Lorenz had admitted, ”Had I gone against my father’s wishes, perhaps not so many of our old friends would have died. For that… I apologize, Claude.”

It had been that moment of honesty that had confirmed what Claude had always suspected, and so he had reached over the table to grasp Lorenz’s hand with his own. Even through the glove, Lorenz’s hand was cold.

”I don’t resent you for it,” Claude said, and for a moment he felt the ghostly fingers of memories squeeze his own shoulders. One blink, and they were gone, replaced by a gentle smile that felt foreign on his face. ”I know some walls are impossible to climb on your own.”

That had left Lorenz puzzled, and the expression had been endearing enough to make Claude chuckle and promise that he’d write to him whenever he had the time to.

It had been a whim, really, and yet…

Claude blinked, and the train of memories vanished just like that. The somber mood remained, however, and Claude pursed his lip before pulling out another, more forced smile. ”He’s always been an overachiever,” he said, and thought _like me_, ”so I’m not too surprised.”

”Sounds like another kid I know.” Not for the first time, Claude wondered whether Nader could actually read his mind.

Looking at Nader now, with his hands empty and pressed against his waist, Claude frowned. A flicker of disappointment already flared up in his heart even before he could speak. ”Did he not send a response with you this time?”

”Oh, that’s right.” Nader blinked, as if awoken from a daze, and reached into the bag at his side. When his hand came back out, it held a neatly folded envelope. ”He wanted it to reach you dry and as untouched as possible, for some reason. Said it was of ’utmost importance’ that it reaches you in the same condition it was when I left.”

Claude could imagine the exact tone of voice Lorenz would say the words with, and he couldn’t help the entirely too fond sigh and shake of his head that followed. ”Sounds like him, all right.”

He thrust his hand out over the back of his chair, his head nodding back towards the desk he’d been writing a reply for Dimitri at. ”I need to finish this, so I might as well read what Lorenz has to say while I’m at it.”

Nader’s eyes laughed at him before his words did. ”Don’t play coy with me, kid. That look on your face is as eager as that of a baby wyvern flying for the first time.”

”Are you going to keep that up even after I ascend to the throne?” Claude huffed, wiggling his fingers at the letter Nader kept from his reach. If his face felt hot for Nader seeing through him so easily, well, that couldn’t be helped. And he’d thought his grandfather’s soul-piercing stare had been bad back in Fódlan. ”I’m well into my twenties now, you know.”

”You don’t look like an adult right now, _kiddo_,” Nader snorted as he leaned in to drop the envelope into Claude’s waiting hand. It was light and thin – no ten-page ramble written in beautiful cursive about the state of Fódlan this time, Claude figured.

”You said he looked ragged,” Claude said. He could imagine it: a determined Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, working tirelessly to improve his father’s legacy and policies to make up for the mistakes of the past. Working a little too hard, even. A surge of fondness flooded Claude, unwanted but familiar. ”Was he in good spirits, regardless?”

”Why don’t you ask him yourself?” Nader raised an eyebrow at him, not unlike a tired parent fed up with their kid’s drama. Claude couldn’t really blame him – the trip to Gloucester territory _was_ rather long and tedious, although considerably easier now that Holst Goneril and Nader weren’t at each other’s throats at Fódlan’s Locket. ”I may deliver your love letters, but that’s about all I can do for you two.”

Claude spluttered. ”They’re _not _love letters, Nader!”

Both Judith _and_ Nader had such a way of making him feel like the hapless kid tied to a horse all over again. Claude had thought that might change with the approaching coronation, but no – as ever, Nader treated him like he was twelve.

”That look on your face isn’t very convincing,” Nader said with a loud chortle that echoed off the bookshelf-lined walls. ”But whatever you say, kiddo. Your _friend_ was very pleased with the gift, mind you. All sparkly-eyed, even if he looked like a good strong wind might knock him over.”

”That’s just the impression he gives,” Claude said. His thumb ran over the seal on the letter, over the Gloucester emblem. ”He’s stronger than what he looks like.”

”You know him better,” Nader conceded as he bowed his head, as if only now remembering proper etiquette toward his prince. ”Anyway, kiddo, I’ve got to go now. Take your time with the letter – I’m in no hurry to deliver that for you.”

”I won’t make you deliver this one, I promise,” Claude said with a laugh of his own at Nader’s wide back just as the other disappeared out the door.

As soon as the door had been shut and he was alone again, Claude turned to the desk and took out the letter opener. It took no effort to slide the blade under the fold of the envelope and cut through until he could pull out the letter contained within.

Putting the letter opener back where it’d been, Claude smiled at the familiar cursive, the extravagant loops that he now found charming.

_Dear Claude,_ the letter started, and Claude smiled at the obvious uncertainty Lorenz had written the endearment with. The ink stain just below it told enough. _As I’m sure Nader has told you with the arrival of this letter, I have taken over my father’s duties as the Count Gloucester. Needless to say, I am prepared for the responsibilities this brings, not only over the territory under my control but for Fódlan as a whole._

Sometimes Claude wondered how much of himself Lorenz had thrown away for the sake of the goals and ideals the older Gloucester had instilled in him. For as long as he had known him, Lorenz had always been so very eager to talk about _duty_ and _responsibility_, and only occasionally the simple pleasures of life such as tea.

Well, back in school he’d also been eager to find a wife.

Nowadays, Lorenz only got horribly embarrassed whenever Claude brought that up – which was why he kept mentioning it in their letters. Often enough to keep Lorenz on his toes, but rarely enough to catch him off guard.

_I almost wish you had been here for the ceremony, though I am sure you would have found it terribly dull, despite how much I myself found myself enjoying it. The tea was quite exquisite for the occasion – <strike>I am certain Ferdinand would have enjoyed it.</strike>_

The crossed-over words were perfectly readable still, and Claude’s lips turned downward at that. He remembered a ginger-haired boy sharing tea with Lorenz at Garreg Mach, remembered even teasing Lorenz about the _tea date_ as he’d called it. Back then, there’d been no real meaning behind it, other than flustering Lorenz for the fun of it.

Now, many years later, Claude was in Almyra, Lorenz in the unified Kingdom of Fódlan, and Ferdinand von Aegir dead like so many of their old classmates.

The bad thing about this kind of correspondence was that Claude could never be sure how much of his feelings Lorenz was hiding behind the fancy wording and beautiful writing.

Hypocritical of him to feel that way, but it was… frustrating.

As usual, Claude swallowed down the feeling and kept on reading.

_ That said… as wonderful as it is to work for a better tomorrow, a part of me wishes for the past days we shared with out classmates to return. It is a foolish wish, of course, as the ones that remain do more than a formidable job at keeping everyone’s spirits high. I am sure you’re in correspondence with Hilda as well – you must know how well she is doing for herself, too. _

In her last letter, Hilda had mentioned something about an idea for an artisan academy. Perhaps that was what Lorenz referred to – either that, or Hilda’s designs gaining the attention they deserved. Either way, Claude’s lips curled into a smile at the mention of her.

_ Ignatz has become quite an artist over time. I hear he is about to set up a shop for himself. I, naturally, have already commissioned him for a portrait. Such talent must not go to waste. Although… something Ignatz said has been on my mind as of late – it is his idea of painting us who remain of the Golden Deer together. I find it splendid, but that would of course require you to come back to Fódlan. For a visit, at the very least. _

Lorenz was not quite as subtle as he probably thought he was being, and it made Claude chuckle out loud, fondness spreading in his chest like a warm ray of sunshine in the Almyran plains.

It might not be a love letter in the traditional sense, but it certainly felt like one. And, to be honest, Claude had never been one for tradition anyway.

_On a more personal note, I must thank you for the tea leaves you sent. I have tried them out, and the tea they produce is marvellous – I cannot have enough, though I must use them sparingly so the joy _ _of them_ _ lasts longer. It almost makes me wish I could enjoy the tea together with you, but that is a whimsical and very foolish part of me that wishes so._

_If my father were to find out I engage in such foolish thoughts, he would be quite upset with me… but, then again, it is not him I should work to please – nor who I wish to please at the moment._

_Claude… I never got the chance to tell you this in person, but the world is quite more dull without you presen_ _ce _ _in it. There is joy in the work I do, of course, but I too have lapses of weakness where I wish for your company – and others’._

These parts of the letter were written quite a bit after the first part, Claude thought and ignored his own thumping heart. Perhaps late at night when Lorenz was drinking the last cup of tea for the day, when his mind wasn’t quite there anymore…

And yet. Lorenz hadn’t tossed them away when he’d given the letter to Nader.

Claude had his dreams, and Lorenz had his, and their worlds weren’t quite yet ready to collide, but… one day…

Claude cut his own thought off, and read the remaining sentences with a heart too light for its own good.

_ Still, the world moves on, and we must move along with it. Should the time come when our worlds are ready to cross paths again, know that I am ready for it. _

_ Yours truly, Lorenz Hellman Gloucester. _

”Nader was right,” Claude mused out loud to no one in particular, eyes shut as he allowed the words he’d just read sink in completely. ”They really are love letters, huh?”

Grinning to himself, Claude inwardly apologized to Dimitri – his response would have to wait a little longer, as he was already pulling out a new sheet of paper for a totally different letter.

**Author's Note:**

> isn't it funny how writing this fic made me emo over ferdinand again?


End file.
